Religious Rappers

Brand Nubian Celebrates A Faith Where The Black Man Is God

`In God We Trust" is the name of the new album by New York rap trio Brand Nubian. "Some people might think we're talking about money," notes frontman Lord Jamar. "We're not."

What Brand Nubian is rapping about is the Five Percent Nation of Islam, a religion followed by all three members.

"In Five Percent Nation, the black man is god," Jamar explains. "The theory is knowledge of self and doing for self."

It's not common for a rap album to have such a pervasive religious theme, Jamar notes. "We're a serious group," he says. "We want to influence a change in the world. These are serious times now and they call for serious attitudes and thought on things that are in our midst."

The members of Brand Nubian, Jamar, Sadat X (previously known as Derek X) and Sincere, all come from New Rochelle in the Bronx.

Their debut album, "One for All," was a critical success, but this new, second album has brought the band fame. Months before it was released, the first single, "Punks Jump Up to Get Beat Down," already was a hit.

"That song was about a feeling, a vibe we felt while doing the album," says Jamar, 24. "A lot of people was talking, doubting us, thinking we wouldn't come back strong since (member Grand Puba) left. This song was to show that talk is dead and we're gonna beat it down."

Other tunes, like "Allah U Akbar" (meaning "God is great") are more concentrated on the teachings of their religion.

"The first side is all explaining our philosophies and beliefs dealing with Five Percent Nation," Jamar says. "It's a way of encouraging young kids to do for self, not to take things they hear on face value. Knowledge of self is always our message and our bottom line.

"What we've learned is that Five Percent Nation has given us a proper education in order to be successful in this world. It's basically knowing that what we've been taught is not correct," Jamar says. "People need to know that what has been taught about the black man is a lie because if they don't know that, they won't look for the truth. We expose the lies."

The band also uses this religious stance to toy with rap lingo. On the song "Pass the Gat," the band seems to be referring to a gun, or gat as it's sometimes called on the streets. "What we're really talking about is God Allah's truth, though," Jamar says. "That's our form of protection and defense, just as a gun is to some people."

As Brand Nubian becomes more popular and starts counting more whites among its fans, some might not like the message that the black man is god.

"It's because of the way people have been taught," Jamar explains. "They can't possibly comprehend another point of view." And, he notes, there are similarities between the beliefs.

"With our culture, the family is the key. We're definitely involved with building a family," he says. "We're trying to make our people understand, and I don't really care if it's not pertaining to people who aren't helping us."

The band is no stranger to controversy anyway. Its first video, "Wake Up" (from its debut album), was banned from MTV because it showed a devil figure in whiteface.

And though Jamar doesn't believe this latest record will cause trouble, he does note that one song, "Black & Blue," may raise an eyebrow.

The band is also likely to raise record companies' hackles with the tune "Steady Bootleggin'," which implies that the record industry itself may be responsible for the great number of bootleg tapes of black music.

"I don't see it being done in any other music but black music," notes Jamar, referring to the cheap, dubbed cassettes of rap artists that are sold on the streets of New York and other cities.

"It's a way to discredit hard-core black music so they can say it don't sell and they can lower your budget," Jamar says. "We're exploring the possibility that it could be the record companies bootlegging these records for those reasons."

It's surprising in this day of Warner Bros. conceding to censorship with Ice-T's new record that Elektra Records would allow Brand Nubian to dare diss the record companies.